Biological clock app 'counts down' fertility

A new iPhone app claims to calculate the amount of time a woman has left in real time before she becomes infertile.

The so-called "wonder clock" is the brainchild of Oregon-based artist Mira Kaddoura, who started the project to confront fears over her own fertility.

All women need to do to work the app (pictured below) is enter their birth date and the clock will start counting down, indicating how many years, months, weeks, hours, minutes and seconds they have left as potential child bearers.

Calculating fertility in such a stark way might seem unpalatable for some - especially when it is such a sensitive and traumatic issue for many women - but Kaddoura believes her wonder clock is empowering and will blow open taboos that surround the topic.

"I created this clock to face my own fears. To beckon the elephant in the room so to speak," she writes on her website, thewonderclock.com. "To release my own power, my own choices. To open a dialogue with other women about fertility, empowerment, and loving ourselves. We are women, and we are ticking. But we are so much more."

She says she came up with the idea of creating a biological clock after a doctor warned her, "If you really want to do this someday, you should start thinking seriously about it." This led her to question how long she had left to have children, and what she would do if she was unable to.

The device - available for download on Kaddoura's website or iTunes - is based on fertility timeline averages and as such, should not be treated as a medical diagnosis.

Around one in six or seven couples - or around 3.5 million people - may have difficulty conceiving in the UK, according to NHS figures. For every 100 couples trying to conceive naturally, 95 will conceive within two years. Find out more about issues related to fertility here.

What do you think? Is Kaddoura's attempt to confront taboos over fertility with the wonder clock commendable or irresponsible? And would you try out the wonder clock? Let us know on Twitter or in the comments section below.